


Numbered Copies

by madryn



Series: sterek ficlets! [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Famous Stiles Stilinski, M/M, Minor Cora Hale/Lydia Martin, Writer Stiles Stilinski, convention au, fanboy derek hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 16:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13275252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madryn/pseuds/madryn
Summary: If there was one thing Stiles adored more than anything, it was attending conventions. Although he had plenty of reasons to attend [read: money, cosplaying], he kept coming back for one major reason: a certain gorgeous man with beautiful eyes and a nice voice.





	Numbered Copies

**Author's Note:**

> This took me like a month to write, but for some reason I have a ton of inspiration and finished it. Bless.
> 
> Just a dumb little one-shot, don't take it too seriously, haha!

If there was one thing Stiles adored more than anything, it was attending conventions. 

The very first convention that Stiles had attended was a small, cluttered little thing that occurred at his local library. He had been maybe six years old at the time, and Claudia had been the one to take him with her. She was in love with conventions: the noise, the people, the ambiance. Claudia loved everything about it, and she had passed along that love to her only child. 

Even after her death, Stiles honored his mother by attending any conventions that he could; his two favorites were Wizard World and the famous San Diego Comic Con, but Stiles enjoyed the smaller conventions, too. 

Stiles even gained a hobby out of attending cons, which was cosplaying. Remaking the costumes of his favorite heroes and villains and characters brought the boy immense joy, and it was something that he carried with him into college as a stress relief.

(His Batman cosplay was well-known. Stiles is very proud of that fact.)

But, as Stiles aged, he began to attend conventions for an entirely different reason.

As a way to pass the time, Stiles began writing. First, he had only written drabbles; plotless little insights to random ideas that poked at his head. However, as he grew more and more accustomed to writing, Stiles began throwing around ideas for his own original book. It had taken his entire senior year and into his freshman year of college to finish it, but Stiles had done it.

A few exciting, albeit stressful, years later, Stiles found himself graduated from college with five published books under his belt. They were successful, too; the idea of people reading his books was an abstract idea to Stiles, and it still surprised the man when people came up to him to thank him for his work.

Hence: conventions.

Stiles adored his fans, which only added onto his love for conventions. He could be in the place that made him the happiest, all the while meeting people who enjoyed what he did and being able to discuss their thoughts on what he had written.

Although there were many differences between the cons that Stiles attended, there was a single common factor shared by some of them that never failed to bring a smile (and a blush) to Stiles' face. Every time that Stiles was a guest at a convention in northern California, a certain gorgeous man would always stop by Stiles' table for an autograph. The man was tall and muscled with the most beautiful eyes that Stiles had ever seen. Stiles wanted to write odes dedicated to those eyes. Hell, Stiles had literally attempted to publish a set of poems he had written dedicated to the man.

(Alas, his editor and wonderful friend Lydia Martin had given him a very strict no on that one.)

That man's name was Derek.

His last name was unknown to Stiles, which was truly a sad concept. Stiles only knew Derek's first name, because the man had shyly asked Stiles to sign his well worn copy of Stiles' first book to one 'Derek'.

Which circles back to Stiles' current dilemma: how weird would it be to bring a numbered copy of each of Stiles' books to gift to Derek? Stiles was practically in love with Derek by this point, and even he knew how absolutely much Derek adored his books. Who doesn't want their favorite author to bring along signed, numbered books just for them? But, Stiles did not want to be disappointed if Derek did not show up. Then again, when did disappointment ever stop Stiles from doing what he wanted?

That's how he found himself begging Lydia to give him aforementioned numbered copies.

Please, Lydia! He had whined to her, staring forlornly past her at her expansive bookshelf. It's for the greater good! This is the one thing in my life that I need! What if I die tomorrow, Lyds? I need to have done this one thing! 

Nonetheless, she had eventually agreed.

(She totally had a soft spot for Stiles; he was too cute to be annoyed at, honestly.)

So, here Stiles was. Sitting behind his little table towards the back of the main ballroom, a multitude of sharpies and Scott by his side and two special edition books safely tucked away in his backpack. Stiles had wanted to bring all five, but Lydia argued him down to two, sigh.

"What does Derek look like, again?" Scott asked around an overly expensive basket of chicken tenders, eyes roaming over Stiles' line and the rest of the people meandering past his booth in search of God knows what.

"Pretty eyes, probably a huge di- Hello! How are you today?" Stiles cut himself off as his attendant finally allowed the first person in his line to walk up to his table. Said person was a teenage girl, blushing and holding out her copy of one of Stiles' books.

"Hey, Stiles," she spoke quickly, "do you mind signing my copy of the Elysian Virago?"

"Of course!" Stiles smiled, taking the book from her sturdy hands. "Anything specific you want it to say? Your name, perhaps?"

"Oh, oh yes! Can you make it out Natasha, please? And if you could include this quote, I'd really appreciate it!" Natasha blushed, but smiled as she passed a bright pink post-it note to Stiles, which proudly portrayed a quote from the book that Stiles vividly remembered writing. 

"This is my favorite quote, too," Stiles told her as he wrote out the quote. "I really wanted to stress the idea that Adelaide was proud of her bisexuality, whether she was with a man or a woman or anyone! She was honestly my favorite character to write out of all of my books."

"I'm bisexual myself, and I was really grateful to have a female main character that was not only bisexual, but also super smart and realistically portrayed when it comes to her emotions! I'm also super thankful that the endgame was Adelaide and Marie; it's hard to find a decent book that doesn't hypersexualize girl/girl relationships!"

"I'm so, so honored to know you feel this way, Natasha. It was really important to me to write this book after my friend Lydia let it slip that she wished there were more books out there that did exactly what you said," Stiles told the teen as he handed her book back to her, "Thank you so much for stopping by!"

"Thank you, too!" The blonde beamed, hugging the hardcover book tightly to her chest and stumbled off to where her girlfriend - Sharon, look what he wrote for me! - was patiently waiting.

"You're truly the best person ever, bro." Scott told Stiles, reaching over to give a teary-eyed Stiles a quick side hug before the next person walked up. 

"Love you, dude," Stiles told his best friend sincerely before turning to his next guest. "Hello! How are you this fine day?"

— • — • —

Day one of the convention had come and gone in the blink of an eye, and the next thing Stiles knew, he was sitting at the restaurant across the street from the con with Scott across from him.

"Ugh, my wrist hurts so bad, Scotty. Remind me to never guest at a big con again. Too many people! I am a people pleaser, but only when people is equivalent to less than a hundred people, 'kay? Remember that, Scott! I'm only one man!" Stiles told his best friend around a slice of pineapple and chicken pizza, flexing his right wrist in tandem with his chews.

"Sure, buddy, I'll remind you." Scott rolled his eyes in fond exasperation. "I'm sorry Derek didn't show up today. He'll probably be here tomorrow, though! Or even on sunday; we might see him while we're wandering around the artist alley!"

Stiles could not help but snort at Scott's relentless optimism. Stiles was a realist; he knew that there was hardly a chance that Derek would show up, but if there was one thing Stiles was good at, it was holding onto false hope.

"It's okay, Scotty! Either way, it's nice to meet fans of my books! Thanks for coming with me, by the way. Lydia was busying wooing her new girlfriend, Cora, I think?"

"Oh yeah, I've heard of her! Lydia practically sang over Cora's 'beauty and excellence at telling men where to shove it'. She showed me a picture, too, and Cora is super pretty! Isaac vaguely recognized her, but he didn't know from what." Scott replied, standing up to throw away his trash in the specified bin. "Want to get back to the hotel? I'm pooped!"

"Yeah, sure, bro! Let me just get a box for the rest of my pizza and call for an Uber." 

— • — • —

Saturday was much the same as Friday had been, except for the fact that Saturdays were notorious for being extremely busy compared to the genteel Fridays. 

Stiles had not even spared Derek a thought as he met fan after fan, his face hurting from smiling and his wrist stiff and pulsing from writing as much as he had. After his busy day, Stiles had gone directly back to his hotel room to take a well needed rest while Scott checked out a few other exhibits within the convention.

However, Sunday was a different story. Stiles was not scheduled to meet fans, because himself and Scott had wanted the shorter day to fully immerse themselves within the convention atmosphere. Although he was generally excited by all of the art and funkos and cosplayers, Stiles felt overwhelmingly distracted in his need to look out for Derek.

Stiles had been sure that Derek would come to the convention, because Derek always came to the northern California cons. It was what made Stiles so eager to attend the current convention, besides his other more general reasons. 

(Like money. He needed money and conventions were full of it.)

Scott, bless his heart, was more intuitive to Stiles' dilemma than Stiles could have anticipated, and strove to be the best distraction he could be.

"Stiles, oh my God! Look!" Scott startled Stiles out of his thoughts, eyes giddy as he pointed to-

"Stevetony cosplayers! Scott, we have to take a picture with them!" Stiles gushed, hurrying over to the pair of realistically dressed cosplayers.

The pair easily accepted the request for a picture, and Stiles felt infinitely better afterwards. Posing with your otp? Priceless. 

But, still, by the end of the day Stiles was rather sad about the whole ordeal and glad that he had not brought five books with him. Hell, he had left the two books in his hotel room on Sunday resigned to the fact that Derek was not coming. Looks like Stiles was correct after all.

— • — • —

"How was the convention?" Lydia asked sweetly as she walked into Stiles' house on Tuesday. "Make any new friends?"

It was a common ritual that the Monday after a convention was Stiles' day to relax and enjoy complete radio silence. He spent the day sleeping, napping, and dozing in various states around his house. Conventions were tiring, okay?

"It was really fun," Stiles told her, which was not a lie. "I met some really cool fans, and I bought a ton of fan art from artists I like! You should see the Loki paiting I found; it's immaculate."

"That's really nice, Stiles." Lydia told him sincerely, "any chance finding the boy you were hinting about? I wish you would tell me his name."

Stiles sighed, throwing an arm over his face, "no sign of him, Lyds. I don't really want to talk about it, 'kay? It hurts to think about right now. I'm still nursing my wounds from the whole ordeal."

"Yeah, okay, Stiles. But! You are coming to dinner tonight. It's about time you meet my new girlfriend! I'm not worried about it, however. I feel like you two will be great friends. Don't worry, either; I'm paying." 

"That sounds amazing, Lyds!" He happily agreed and after catching up with Lydia, agreed to meet up with her at a nice restaurant a quick drive away at 6:00 P.M. She was on her way, and Stiles allowed himself to curl back up under his numerous blankets on the couch. It was hardly eleven in the morning, so Stiles told himself that he could wallow in his self pity for a good few hours until he had to make himself presentable for Lydia and her girlfriend.

Turning his Netflix on to Stranger Things 2 and pulling the bag of hot cheetos closer to himself, Stiles allowed himself to relax and be glum about Derek's lack of an appearance at the convention. Besides, nothing made Stiles happier than cheering on his two favorites, Dustin and Lucas.

(They were totally the two best characters in the show, fight me, Erica!)

(Erica was partial to Will, herself. And Steve. Definitely Steve. To be fair, Stiles was too.)

— • — • —

After taking a nice long shower, Stiles spent less time that he should have styling his hair, but people tended to tell him that his 'artfully styled messy hair', which was just messy hair, made him look more attractive. The less work, the better! 

His skinny jeans were tight and clung nicely to his thin legs and, in an effort to look decently nice, paired the jeans and black converse with a nice, dark gray button-up shirt. Alas, the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and the top buttons were undone, but kudos for trying.

After scurring down the stairwell and to his designated parking spot, Stiles found that Roscoe had been, surprisingly, easy to start; the jeep had roared to life the first time Stiles turned the key in the ignition. Usually the car took at least ten attempts before begrudgingly starting, but Stiles was pleasantly surprised by the difference. The restaurant Lydia picked was only a fifteen minutes drive normally, but traffic was good and he made in ten.

Walking into the restaurant, Stiles was pleased to see Lydia and the probable girlfriend sitting at a large glass table with plenty of sunlight and an exquisite bouquet of flowers on top of it. Considering that none of the other tables had flowers and the well-known fact that nothing pleased Lydia more than lillies, Stiles found it pretty obvious that the girlfriend had been the one to bring them as a gift for the aforementioned redhead. It was a happy thought.

Lydia had been hurt before by past relationships. More so than people often expected, and even believed. Her first boyfriend had been an asshole jock named Jackson, who had practically shredded Lydia's confidence with his well-aimed barbs and biting remarks; he was the reason why Lydia spent so much of high school playing dumb and refraining from joining the academic teams she had always dreamed of leading. Luckily, she had found the strength to break up with him senior year. At the time, Stiles had been overwhelmingly in love with the redhead; it had hurt him to see her so utterly destroyed and had done all that he could do to help her back onto her feet. Lydia was strong, though, and all of the credit to her healing went to herself. She was the one strong enough to keep going, whether or not Stiles had been there.

There was a period of time during senior year where it really seemed like Lydia and Allison were going to date, but that all ended when a drunk driver crashed into Allison's car one night. While she had lived and healed, it had instilled a fear so deep in Lydia that she could not get over it after the fact.

So, the fact that Lydia had grown enough and healed enough to be able to smile happily at her beautiful girlfriend and accept her favorite flowers and invite him to join them for food had Stiles momentarily tearing up. He shook himself, however, and sat next to Lydia at the aforementioned women's table.

"Hello! You must be Cora, right? I'm Lydia's friend Stiles! It's so great to be able to finally meet you!" Stiles smiled brightly and truthfully, sticking out his right hand in order to shake Cora's own. 

The small brunette smiled, all sharp teeth and simmering wit as she shook Stiles' hand and spoke, "It's nice to see you in person; I've heard many great stories about you. Is it true that you once caught your couch on fire through misuse of a heated blanket?"

"Mock me all you would like, but that took actual talent that about ninety-nine-percent of the planet's population does not have!" Stiles joked, gladly taking a glass of water that a waitress handed him.

"Are you ready to order?" The blonde waitress asked patiently, pen and paper out and ready for their orders.

"Oh no, sorry! About five more minutes, please? Our last guest is on his way!" Cora smiled sweetly at the waitress, though the lady took it nicely and promised that she would return when the last guest made an appearance.

"Oh, is Scott coming?" Stiles turned to ask Lydia, his brow furled in confusion.

"She didn't tell you? My brother is coming as well, I hope you don't mind, Stiles. He's a big teddy bear, I'm sure you'll love him!" Cora told him, grinning widely at the thought of her older sibling.

"Oh, here he is now! Stiles, meet Cora's brother-"

"Derek?" Stiles gasped, slamming his glass of water back onto the table in his utter surprise.

"Stiles?" Derek nearly screeched, his eyes wide and his jaw nearly unhinged in his shock.

"Oh my God, Stiles, Cora's brother is your Derek?" Lydia asked, her own perfectly sculpted eyebrows raised in surprise.

"My Derek!" Stiles shouted at the same time as Derek squeaked "His Derek?".

The two men floundered for another second before Stiles' mouth opened on his own accord and he said, rather petulantly and more sad than he hoped to sound, "You weren't at the convention. I looked for you."

"Y-you looked? For me?" Derek stuttered, before getting a grasp on himself as he hurriedly continued, "I wasn't there, although I seriously wanted to be, because Cora had just flown in from her trip to South America and I've missed her a lot and I can't believe you looked for me!"

"Of course I looked for you! I've had the hugest most obvious crush on you forever!" Stiles shouted, flailing his arms.

"You have? I literally travel across California to see you at conventions. Half the time I hate conventions, because there are so many people there but it's my only chance to talk to you!" Derek shouted in turn, prominent bunny teeth on display.

"Can you guys take this outside? People are trying to enjoy their food, boys." Lydia smirked, gesturing with her chin towards the door as Cora snickered into her hand.

"Oh you bet we will!" Stiles yelled, grabbing Derek's hand in his own and pulling the willing man through the restaurant and out the door. "Where's your car?"

"Uh, it's the Camaro."

Stiles turned to look where Derek had pointed and nearly balked at the impressive black car that patiently waited in its parking spot. There was not a single speck of dirt on the vehicle and Stiles was practically in love.

"You're going to slam me into your car and we're going to fucking make out for at least an hour, holy shit."

When Derek only stared at Stiles blankly, Stiles took matters into his own hands and fell back against the driver's side of the Camaro and pulled Derek down with him until they were pressed together from their chest all the day down to their toes.

Stiles opened his mouth to tell Derek to 'fucking kiss me already', but Derek took the motion as all of the incentive he needed to attacked Stiles' mouth with intent. Derek licked into the younger's mouth, and they stayed their against the car making out for a long while.

Finally, Derek broke apart from Stiles to gasp in air, his lungs heaving as he panted. Stiles himself was not fairing much better as he willed his erection to get itself under control.

"Oh my God! Wait!" Stiles suddenly yelled, dipping to tear into his messenger bag that had fallen to the ground in their haste. 

"What!" 

"I was going to give you these at the convention, but you weren't there. So, I guess this is a moment as good as any to gift them to you," Stiles told the other man awkwardly, before pulling out the numbered copies of two of his books. He passed them into Derek's opened hands, and the other man barely glanced at them before he was back to thoroughly kissing the life out of Stiles.

"Holy shit, please, please marry me, Stiles, holy fuck." He said between kisses, his face bright and youthful in his utter delight and unadulterated happiness and Stiles was a goner.

"Take me on a date first."

"Anywhere you'd like, I'd take you."

"I'd settle for takeout at your place," Stiles smirked, winking.

Derek's grin was downright predatory as he murmured into Stiles' ear, "As you wish."

**Author's Note:**

> If you caught my two marvel ship references, bless your heart. I had to include them!! Sorry not sorry;)


End file.
